The term lead man­age­ment describes measures in the course or customer ac­qui­si­tion. The aim is on the one hand to convert potential customers into buyers and to maintain contact with existing leads, and on the other hand to analyze efforts correctly.

What is lead man­age­ment?

Lead man­age­ment deals with all efforts and measures related to leads (contact ini­ti­a­tion in marketing or sales). Every non-binding contact has the potential to become a paying customer. The aim of lead man­age­ment is to exploit this potential, turning a person who has shown interest in a business re­la­tion­ship into a paying customer.

Lead man­age­ment can be sub­di­vid­ed into different phases, which represent certain aspects around the re­la­tion­ship of a company to its potential customers. At the very beginning, the aim is to win potential customers for one’s own products – usually through marketing measures. In­ter­est­ed parties dis­tin­guish them­selves as leads by the fact that the company has contact data from them – for example, in the form of an e-mail address. However, further in­for­ma­tion on in­ter­est­ed parties is always welcome, as this sim­pli­fies the process of making contact and allows you to suc­cess­ful­ly in­di­vid­u­al­ize further contact.

The next step is to expand interest with measures tailored to the customer. It is therefore an important aspect of lead man­age­ment to maintain an overview and to proceed with the right degree of caution. A lack of contact with a potential customer will make them lose interest. In return, too much contact might result in the potential customer getting frus­trat­ed. In order to find the right balance, lead man­age­ment relies on scoring. Leads receive a value, which can help you orient your efforts towards them.

However, analysis goes even further. The success of marketing measures can be de­ter­mined by precise ob­ser­va­tion in the course of lead man­age­ment. The analysis to assess the return on in­vest­ment: Do the ad­ver­tis­ing measures used bring the desired success? Such findings make marketing more efficient. In the last step, the lead is passed on: It is then the task of the sales de­part­ment to stimulate a purchase. In the best case, a con­ver­sion follows: The con­ver­sion of the prospec­tive customer into a real customer.

Image: Graphic of how different aspects in lead management interact.
Lead man­age­ment is made up of different areas of re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.

An overview of the in­di­vid­ual phases of the lead man­age­ment process:

At­tract­ing prospec­tive customers

Lead gen­er­a­tion (also referred to as lead gen­er­a­tion) means acquiring potential customers. The task of lead gen­er­a­tion is to identify high quality leads and win them over for the company. The aim is to build up a large customer database with as much data as possible so that customers can be contacted later on. There are many ways to generate leads in online marketing. Classic lead gen­er­a­tion, for example, occurs when you register for the company newslet­ter or register on a website for the first time. In­cen­tives, such as discount vouchers, coupons, and com­pe­ti­tions, are still popular methods of gen­er­at­ing leads.

Caring for contacts

Lead nurturing is all about main­tain­ing your contacts i.e. contact man­age­ment. Once a lead has been suc­cess­ful­ly generated and the contact has been added to the database, the contact may still not be anywhere near to making a purchase – they need to be persuaded. This is the time to address potential customers with the right in­for­ma­tion and ad­ver­tis­ing at the right time. It is very important for the content to cor­re­spond to the re­spec­tive point in the customer journey.

Lead nurturing takes places in every phase of the lead man­age­ment process: when acquiring new customers, when keeping existing customers, and when winning back inactive contacts. The goal of lead nurturing is to provide more qualified leads and, above all, better qualified leads, which is why ad­di­tion­al de­vel­op­ment of leads is important. In the end, companies expect shortened con­ver­sion processes, better con­ver­sion rates, and an optimal return on in­vest­ment (ROI).

Analyzing leads

Lead scoring is when already qualified contacts are evaluated. This helps you to work out how high the chances of a suc­cess­ful trans­ac­tion are. The quality of a contact or request is important for accessing how in­ter­est­ing a lead is for the par­tic­u­lar sales target. Lead scoring usually takes place according to certain quality factors. What’s par­tic­u­lar­ly important for a high lead score is how complete and up-to-date the profile is. But the response to the measures taken in lead nurturing is es­pe­cial­ly crucial.

For­ward­ing lead routing to in­ter­est­ed parties

If a lead has reached a pre-defined threshold value during lead scoring, the lead is handed over to the sales de­part­ment – this process is referred to as lead routing. Employees in sales need all relevant in­for­ma­tion and contact details of potential customers to adapt their sales strategy ac­cord­ing­ly. They then initiate the measures pre­vi­ous­ly decided upon so that they can suc­cess­ful­ly complete the buying process.

How does suc­cess­ful lead man­age­ment work?

In addition to con­struc­tive and efficient co­op­er­a­tion between sales and marketing, the basis for good, promising lead man­age­ment is es­pe­cial­ly high-quality, cus­tomized content. Offers and content must match the re­spec­tive phase in the customer’s buying process. The customer should be addressed at every step of their journey and be offered concise content. Even at the beginning of the buying process (during lead gen­er­a­tion), the right content is critical to success. During this phase, the potential customer needs to get in­ter­est­ed, by using check­lists, e-books, or white papers.

When it comes to lead nurturing, the aim is to try to transfer com­pe­tence and expert knowledge bit by bit to create a trusting re­la­tion­ship. If you provide content with added value from the start, nothing can stand in your way of suc­cess­ful lead man­age­ment. This way, you create a solid foun­da­tion to turn a prospec­tive customer into a buyer. The sales staff must also make a positive impact on the pur­chas­ing decision by using con­vinc­ing offers.

What can lead man­age­ment do?

Lead man­age­ment is about the con­trolled trans­for­ma­tion of prospects into customers. Instead of leaving it to chance or the potential customers them­selves to decide whether to make the purchase, lead man­age­ment is an attempt to influence the decision whether to make the purchase in a targeted manner. We have clearly sum­ma­rized the ad­van­tages of the in­di­vid­ual lead man­age­ment measures in the table below.

Service De­scrip­tion
Acquiring leads Lead man­age­ment develops functions to collect the data of in­ter­est­ed parties. This works with online forms, for example.
Managing leads Databases can be used to organize and prepare all functions neatly.
Expand leads Since lead man­age­ment gives you a good overview, you can make effective contact with potential customers.
Evaluate leads Through the detailed analysis of leads, one can work out how likely a con­ver­sion is.
Check marketing Since lead marketing is an interface between marketing and sales, the marketing efforts should be evaluated.
At­tract­ing customers The rea­son­able handling of leads increases the prob­a­bil­i­ty that they will become customers.
Automate actions Lead man­age­ment makes it possible to collect in­for­ma­tion that can then be used for marketing au­toma­tion.
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